text:
"Chapter 28: The Wrongful Road of Abuse," Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith (2011), 249–55
"Chapter 28," Teachings: Joseph F. Smith, 249–55
Chapter 28
The Wrongful Road of Abuse
We should never abuse others but should show compassion and tenderness to all, especially to family members.
From the Life of Joseph F. Smith
President Joseph F. Smith was a tender and gentle man who expressed sorrow at any kind of abuse. He understood that violence would beget violence, and his own life was an honest expression of compassion and patience, warmth and understanding.
On one occasion President Smith said: "I witnessed a little circumstance in our meeting this afternoon in the aisle; a little child was sitting by its mother on a seat. Somebody came along and took the little child off its seat, and occupied the seat himself, leaving the child to stand. I want to say to you, my brethren and sisters, that that act sent a pang to my heart. I would not, for anything … grieve the heart of a little child in the house of God, lest an impression should be left upon its mind that would make the house of worship a distasteful place, and it would prefer not to come within its walls, than to come and be offended."1
President Smith often counseled his brothers and sisters to treat each other with the greatest kindness. Violence or behavior that demeaned another person was unthinkable to him. Husbands and wives were to hold one another in the highest esteem and teach their children by example to respect family members and all other people.
Teachings of Joseph F. Smith
We should treat each other with the greatest respect and courtesy.
Let us conquer ourselves, and then go to and conquer all the evil that we see around us, as far as we possibly can. And we will do it without using violence; we will do it without interfering with the agency of men or of women. We will do it by persuasion, by long-suffering, by patience, and by forgiveness and love unfeigned, by which we will win the hearts, the affections and the souls of the children of men to the truth as God has revealed it to us.2
[God] has made us in his own form and likeness, and here we are male and female, parents and children. And we must become more and more like him—more like him in love, in charity, in forgiveness, in patience, long-suffering and forbearance, in purity of thought and action, intelligence, and in all respects, that we may be worthy of exaltation in his presence.3
Parents … should love and respect each other, and treat each other with respectful decorum and kindly regard, all the time. The husband should treat his wife with the utmost courtesy and respect. The husband should never insult her; he should never speak slightly of her, but should always hold her in the highest esteem in the home, in the presence of their children. … The wife, also should treat the husband with the greatest respect and courtesy. Her words to him should not be keen and cutting and sarcastic. She should not pass slurs or insinuations at him. She should not nag him. She should not try to arouse his anger or make things unpleasant about the home. The wife should be a joy to her husband, and she should live and conduct herself at home so the home will be the most joyous, the most blessed place on earth to her husband. This should be the condition of the husband, wife, the father and the mother, within the sacred precinct of that holy place, the home.
Then it will be easy for the parents to instill into the hearts of their children not only love for their fathers and their mothers, not only respect and courtesy towards their parents, but love and courtesy and deference between the children at home. The little brothers will respect their little sisters. The little boys will respect one another. The little girls will respect one another and the girls and boys will respect one another, and treat one another with that love, that deference and respect that should be observed in the home on the part of the little children. Then … the foundation of a correct education has been laid in the heart and mind of the child at home.4
Husbands should treat their wives with tenderness.
Think what it means to hold keys of authority which—if exercised in wisdom and in righteousness—are bound to be respected by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost! Do you honor this Priesthood? … Would you, as an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ, dishonor your wife or your children? Would you desert the mother of your children, the wife of your bosom, the gift of God to you, which is more precious than life itself? For without the woman the man is not perfect in the Lord, no more than the woman is perfect without the man.5
I can not understand how a man can be unkind to any woman, much less to the wife of his bosom, and the mother of his children, and I am told that there are those who are absolutely brutal, but they are unworthy the name of men.6
When I think of our mothers, the mothers of our children, and realize that under the inspiration of the Gospel they live virtuous, pure, honorable lives, true to their husbands, true to their children, true to their convictions of the Gospel, oh, how my soul goes out in pure love for them; how noble and how God-given, how choice, how desirable and how indispensable they are to the accomplishment of God's purposes and the fulfilment of his decrees! My brethren, can you mistreat your wives, the mothers of your children? Can you help treating them with love and kindness? Can you help trying to make their lives as comfortable and happy as possible, lightening their burdens to the utmost of your ability, making life pleasant for them and for their children in their homes? How can you help it? How can any one help feeling an intense interest in the mother of his children, and also in his children? If we possess the Spirit of God, we can not do otherwise. It is only when men depart from the right spirit, when they digress from their duty, that they will neglect or dishonor any soul that is committed to their care. They are bound to honor their wives and children.7
Intelligent men, men of business, men of affairs, men who are involved constantly in the labors of life, and have to devote their energies and thought to their labors and duties, may not enjoy as many comforts with their families as they would like, but if they have the Spirit of the Lord with them in the performance of their temporal duties, they will never neglect the mothers of their children, nor their children.8
Fathers and mothers, do not drive your children away.
Oh! my brethren, be true to your families, be true to your wives and children. Teach them the way of life. Do not allow them to get so far from you that they will become oblivious to you or to any principle of honor, purity or truth. … If you will keep your boys close to your heart, within the clasp of your arms; if you will make them to feel that you love them, that you are their parents, that they are your children, and keep them near to you, they will not go very far from you, and they will not commit any very great sin. But it is when you turn them out of the home, turn them out of your affection—out into the darkness of the night into the society of the depraved or degraded; it is when they become tiresome to you, or you are tired of their innocent noise and prattle at home, and you say, "Go off somewhere else," it is this sort of treatment of your children that drives them from you.9
Our children are like we are; we couldn't be driven; we can't be driven now. We are like some other animals that we know of in the world. You can coax them; you can lead them, by holding out inducements to them, and by speaking kindly to them, but you can't drive them; they won't be driven. We won't be driven. Men are not in the habit of being driven; they are not made that way. …
You can't force your boys, nor your girls into heaven. You may force them to hell, by using harsh means in the efforts to make them good, when you yourselves are not as good as you should be. The man that will be angry at his boy, and try to correct him while he is in anger, is in the greatest fault; he is more to be pitied and more to be condemned than the child who has done wrong. You can only correct your children by love, in kindness, by love unfeigned, by persuasion, and reason.10
Fathers, if you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the gospel, if you wish them to love the truth and understand it, if you wish them to be obedient to and united with you, love them! and prove to them that you do love them by your every word or act to them. For your own sake, for the love that should exist between you and your boys—however wayward they might be, or one or the other might be, when you speak or talk to them, do it not in anger, do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit. Speak to them kindly; get them down and weep with them if necessary and get them to shed tears with you if possible. Soften their hearts; get them to feel tenderly toward you. Use no lash and no violence, but … approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned.11
May the fathers in Israel live as they should live; treat their wives as they should treat them; make their homes as comfortable as they possibly can; lighten the burden upon their companions as much as possible; set a proper example before their children; teach them to meet with them in prayer, morning and night, and whenever they sit down to partake of food, to acknowledge the mercy of God in giving them the food that they eat and the raiment that they wear, and acknowledge the hand of God in all things.12
Suggestions for Study
What does it mean to "conquer ourselves"? How can we "win the hearts" of our children and others to the truth?
How can husbands and wives treat each other with "utmost courtesy" and "the greatest respect"? What are the benefits of doing so? When parents treat each other with respect and courtesy, how does their behavior affect the behavior of their children?
What are the best ways in which we can influence others to live righteously? (See D&C 121:41–44.) What are some kinds of abusive behavior that contradict this counsel from the Lord?
How do we sometimes drive our children away from us? What might happen to us and our children if we drive them away?
Why is the parent who corrects a child in anger at greater fault than the child? What might a parent do when he or she feels anger at children?
How did the Savior treat little children? (See Matthew 19:13–15; 3 Nephi 17:11–24.) What was His warning to those who abuse little children? (See Matthew 18:1–6.)
How can we keep our children close to us and to the principles of the gospel? What are the blessings that come to those who keep their children "close to [their] heart"?


text:
Welcome to the search area for tools and methods!
We have collected examples from 90 schools in several European countries. You can search by four different criteria:
More will come, and you can help by sharing your best practice.
When you have selected a tool or method, there is an option to review the tool. We encourage you to share your opinion or view. This will help us develop the virtual guide, and give important feedback to your colleagues all over Europe.
Economics reinforces concepts of micro- and macro-economics by having students explore the basic characteristics of an economic system and how economic principles influence business decisions. It also introduces students to consumer issues, such as saving, investing, and taxation.
A description of a 'progression ladder' of accredited qualifications focusing on social enterprise and featuring a 'hands-on' approach. They have been developed by the Real Ideas organisation (RIO) in the UK but have potential for use in many other countries.
An interactive classroom programme, launched in 1919, Company Programme offers an opportunity for older students to learn how to take a business idea from concept to reality. It's the perfect preparation for working life!
A model for understanding entrepreneurship education and progression, developed by The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship, which seeks to overcome the lack of consistent research, the disagreements on the aim and the different paradigms in the field.
A paper describing the 'Rotherham Ready' model of entrepreneurship education and the journey taken in Rotherham to becoming 'The Most Enterprising Place in Britain' in 2010.
A set of enterprising attitudes, skills and capabilities that young people can develop through their enterprise learning and activity, together with practical methods and examples.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Featured Product
Crayola has been making crayons at its facilities in eastern Pennsylvania for more than 100 years, during which they have become the undisputed leaders in providing crayons and other colorful items children use to express their creativity. Everyone knows the name, but few recognize Crayola's dedication to ensuring that the 2.2 billion crayons they make every year meet the highest standards.
Crayola relies on a data-driven culture of continuous improvement to enhance the quality of their crayons—not to mention their markers, paints, modelling clay, and other products—and they trust Minitab Statistical Software to analyze that data. "We start with the assumption that everything we do, we can do better," explains Gary Wapinski, vice president of manufacturing. "And that's why Minitab is key—it helps us understand the statistical analysis and lets the data reveal where we need to go."
Crayola's data-driven approach to solving problems really took off in 2007. That's the year Pete Ruggiero, executive vice president of global operations, encountered an issue while visiting one of the company's overseas locations. "I went into a shop and opened a box of our crayons, and some of the labels were coming off," he recalls. "When I got back, I said 'We've got to get this fixed,' but there was a dispute about the source of the problem. We wound up doing an elementary Six Sigma project to resolve it."
Data analysis showed that the adhesive didn't consistently set properly when the labels were dry. Misting crayons as they went through the labeling machines solved the problem, and that project's success prompted Crayola to expand the use of statistical methods. In 2008, the company's initial wave of Six Sigma projects saved more than $1.5 million. Since then, 7 waves of Six Sigma green belts and 3 waves of black belts have completed projects, and all of them have analyzed their data with Minitab.
Hands-on Commitment—from the Top
Rich Titus, a Lean Six Sigma consultant and adjunct faculty member at Lehigh University, trains Crayola's green and black belts and helps them keep projects on track. He credits Crayola's leadership with providing the support necessary to initiate and sustain a successful continuous improvement program. "Executives are actively involved in selecting and approving projects, and we gather with project leaders to review their progress every few weeks," Titus notes. "And even though those review sessions can last up to three hours, the executives aren't replying to e-mails or stepping out to take phone calls—they're engaged and asking questions about every project."
Knowing their leaders take it seriously helps teams appreciate the importance of this data-driven methodology, says James Collins, manager of continuous improvement and Six Sigma at Crayola. "Project leaders need to be able to support their recommendations with data. Having an idea to make something better is great—but when you can prove it with charts and graphs and statistics, then you've got the foundation to make a change."
But Crayola's leaders don't just review improvement projects—they do their own. Wapinski's most recent project saved a quarter of a million dollars. When the project began, highly experienced workers were assigned to oversee small teams of less experienced employees who placed arts and crafts components into kits. "I used Minitab to compare lines led by veteran employees with lines led by the less experienced workers themselves," he says, "and found no differences in safety, efficiency, or quality. Paying skilled employees to lead these teams gave no benefits, because the kit-assembly process is so limited. So we were able to move these skilled employees to areas where their experience has a real impact."
Not surprisingly, many projects at Crayola contribute to the goal of making the perfect crayon. Company engineers used Minitab's Measurement System Analysis (MSA) and Design of Experiments (DOE) tools to study the breaking strength of crayons—efforts that ultimately led to new standards and even the creation of a new crayon break-testing machine.
"We've made crayons for more than 100 years, but we didn't have a reliable, consistent crayon strength measurement until now," says Bonnie Hall, vice president for global quality and continuous improvement. "Every time we tested a formula change, we needed to break tens of thousands of crayons to know if we'd made a difference or not. Now it's much faster and easier to evaluate how strong our crayons are."
Root Causes and Real Solutions
Gary Wapinski witnessed many poor examples of data analysis before he joined Crayola. "I saw people spend more time trying to figure out how to come up with data that supported their thesis rather than letting the data reveal where they needed to go," he says.
"Many people do not want to do the hard work of getting to the root cause of a problem. If a piece of equipment shuts down every three minutes, they'd rather just believe that we can buy a new machine to solve the problem. But if the root cause has to do with our processes, materials, or training our people, then a new machine won't fix anything. I want to make real improvements, not fake ones, so combining disciplined problem solving with a powerful tool like Minitab is something I naturally gravitate toward."
Using Minitab sometimes turns conventional wisdom on its head—like the time a process was improved by reducing the line speed and cutting the crew from 10 people to 5. "Some people were convinced those changes would mean less output, but the capacity study in Minitab showed that we got the same output at a lower speed with half the labour," says Wapinski. "Running the machine faster just introduced more downtime and scrap. What's more, the people working the line were much happier, because they weren't fighting to keep up with the machine at those higher speeds."
Although their work may change, no one at Crayola has lost a job as a result of a quality project. "When we started this, employees wondered what we were doing, and whether their jobs would be going away," Ruggiero says. "Now everyone understands that we're investing in continuous improvement to increase our competitiveness and preserve jobs."
Sustaining Improvements
Crayola wants these improvements to be sustainable, and project savings are rolled into the budget. "You can't just make a PowerPoint and cite the dollars you've saved," says Ruggiero. "We recalculate the standard cost of that process based on those savings, and then we deliver on those savings."
The use of data also affects Crayola's suppliers. For instance, the company partnered with a supplier to reduce the amount of defects in corrugated shipping cartons. "We really need perfect cartons," says Hall. "If they have any warp at all, they don't run through the automatic case packers."
That project slashed $56,000 worth of defects to nothing in a single year—and when defects began to reappear, another benefit of paying close attention to the data became evident. "Routine analysis gave us a clear warning as soon as quality started failing, and we worked with the supplier to solve the problem much more quickly as a result."
A Culture of Data Awareness
Those involved in Crayola's quality initiative know it's a long-term effort. "You don't flip a switch and suddenly you're a great company," says Wapinski. But data analysis using Minitab already is a part of everyday operations. Pareto charts, boxplots, hypothesis tests, control charts, and capability analyses are common sights.
"Minitab is a daily tool for managing and exploring our data," says Hall. "And because we're using Minitab, it's much easier to communicate about business problems. There's an expectation that you have a good understanding of your data, and that gets us to the root of the problem more quickly."
Being able to analyze and act on data has transformed the way Crayola does business, and it benefits the entire operation. "It's allowed us to concentrate resources where we can get the most bang for our buck," Ruggiero says. "We've moved our culture from 'When you have a problem, bury it,' to 'We have a problem and we need to make it visible so we can solve it.'"


text:
The World Health Report 2008 critically assesses the way that health care is organized, financed, and delivered in rich and poor countries around the world. The WHO report documents a number of failures and shortcomings that have left the health status of different populations, both within and between countries, dangerously out of balance.
"The World Health Report sets out a way to tackle inequities and inefficiencies in health care, and its recommendations need to be heeded," said WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan at the launch of the report in Almaty, Kazakhstan. "A world that is greatly out of balance in matters of health is neither stable nor secure."
The report, titled Primary health care – now more than ever, commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Alma-Ata International Conference on Primary Health Care held in 1978. That event was the first to put health equity on the international political agenda.
Striking inequities
In a wide-ranging review, the new report found striking inequities in health outcomes, in access to care, and in what people have to pay for care. Differences in life expectancy between the richest and poorest countries now exceed 40 years. Of the estimated 136 million women who will give birth this year, around 58 million will receive no medical assistance whatsoever during childbirth and the postpartum period, endangering their lives and that of their infants.
Globally, annual government expenditure on health varies from as little as US$ 20 per person to well over US$ 6000. For 5.6 billion people in low- and middle-income countries, more than half of all health care expenditure is through out-of-pocket payments.
With the costs of health care rising and systems for financial protection in disarray, personal expenditures on health now push more than 100 million people below the poverty line each year.
Vast differences in health occur within countries and sometimes within individual cities. In Nairobi, for example, the under-five mortality rate is below 15 per 1000 in the high-income area. In a slum in the same city, the rate is 254 per 1000.
"High maternal, infant, and under-five mortality often indicates lack of access to basic services such as clean water and sanitation, immunizations and proper nutrition," said Ann M. Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director. "Primary health care, including integrated services at the community level, can help improve health and save lives."
Health systems lose focus
Data set out in the report are indicative of a situation in which many health systems have lost their focus on fair access to care, their ability to invest resources wisely, and their capacity to meet the needs and expectations of people, especially in impoverished and marginalized groups.
As the report notes, conditions of "inequitable access, impoverishing costs, and erosion of trust in health care constitute a threat to social stability."
To steer health systems towards better performance, the report calls for a return to primary health care, a holistic approach to health care formally launched 30 years ago. When countries at the same level of economic development are compared, those where health care is organized around the tenets of primary health care produce a higher level of heath for the same investment.
Such lessons take on critical importance at a time of global financial crisis.
"Viewed against current trends, primary health care looks more and more like a smart way to get health development back on track," said Dr Chan.
As initially articulated, primary health care revolutionized the way health was interpreted and radically altered prevailing models for organizing and delivering care. It represented a deliberate effort to counter trends responsible for the "gross inequality" in the health status of populations.
Increasing relevance of primary health care
In calling for a return to primary health care, WHO argues that its values, principles and approaches are more relevant now than ever before. Several findings support this conclusion. As the report notes, inequalities in health outcomes and access to care are much greater today than they were in 1978.
In far too many cases, people who are well-off and generally healthier have the best access to the best care, while the poor are left to fend for themselves. Health care is often delivered according to a model that concentrates on diseases, high technology, and specialist care, with health viewed as a product of biomedical interventions and the power of prevention largely ignored.
Specialists may perform tasks that are better managed by general practitioners, family doctors, or nurses. This contributes to inefficiency, restricts access, and deprives patients of opportunities for comprehensive care. When health is skewered towards specialist care, a broad menu of protective and preventive interventions tends to be lost.
WHO estimates that better use of existing preventive measures could reduce the global burden of disease by as much as 70%.
Inequities in access to care and in health outcomes are usually greatest in cases where health is treated as a commodity and care is driven by profitability. The results are predictable: unnecessary tests and procedures, more frequent and longer hospital stays, higher overall costs, and exclusion of people who cannot pay.
Fragmented health care
In rural parts of the developing world, care tends to be fragmented into discrete initiatives focused on individual diseases or projects, with little attention to coherence and little investment in basic infrastructures, services, and staff. As the report observes, such situations reduce people to "programme targets."
Above all, health care is failing to respond to rising social expectations for health care that is people-centred, fair, affordable and efficient.
A primary health care approach, when properly implemented, protects against many of these problems. It promotes a holistic approach to health that makes prevention equally important as cure in a continuum of care that extends throughout the lifespan. As part of this holistic approach, it works to influence fundamental determinants of health that arise in multiple non-health sectors, offering an upstream attack on threats to health.
Primary health care brings balance back to health care, and puts families and communities at the hub of the health system. With an emphasis on local ownership, it honours the resilience and ingenuity of the human spirit and makes space for solutions created by communities, owned by them, and sustained by them.
Working towards fairness and efficiency
The core strategy for tackling inequalities is to move towards universal coverage in a spirit of equity, social justice, and solidarity. Fairness and efficiency in service delivery are overarching goals.
Primary health care also offers the best way of coping with the ills of life in the 21st century: the globalization of unhealthy lifestyles, rapid unplanned urbanization, and the ageing of populations. These trends contribute to a rise in chronic diseases, like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and asthma, that create new demands for long-term care and strong community support. A multisectoral approach is central to prevention, as the main risk factors for these diseases lie outside the health sector.
The report says that health systems will not naturally gravitate towards greater fairness and efficiency. Deliberate policy decisions are needed. The evidence and arguments set out in the report should help in this task.
"We are, in effect, encouraging countries to go back to the basics," said Dr Chan. "Thirty years of well-monitored experience tell us what works and where we need to head, in rich and poor countries alike."
Related links:
World Health Report 2008
Topical focus: primary health care
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text:
Office of the Secretary |
Mark Pfeifle
For Immediate Release: November 10, 2003 |
Secretary Norton
Commends Rep. Charles H. Taylor |
(WASHINGTON) - Interior Secretary Gale Norton today commended Rep. Charles H. Taylor for his vital support of the Department of the Interior Appropriations Bill, which President Bush signed into law today. "Thanks to the support
of Congressman Taylor and other representatives, the bill provides funding
for major initiatives to improve national parks, build and restore Indian
schools, improve forest and rangeland health, and suppress catastrophic
wildland fires," Secretary Norton said. "It also contains
provisions to enhance traditional and renewable energy and to improve
management of our wildlife refuges and other public lands." The 2004 Interior budget
provides $9.9 billion for the Department's programs and operations,
which exceeds the 2003 level by $111.5 million, and funds vital programs
in North Carolina, including important support for endangered species
and habitat conservation, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smokey Mountains
National Park. Including a recent budget amendment of $99 million for fire, the President's budget request for discretionary appropriations for Department of the Interior programs in the Interior bill totaled $9.86 billion. The conference agreement is $58 million or 0.6 percent below the President's budget request. Budget highlights include the following: " For the second year, Congress has provided increases for Secretary Norton's Cooperative Conservation Initiative. The total 2004 appropriation for CCI is $110.3 million. This is $18.9 million over 2003 and cumulatively $35.4 million over 2002. This includes an increase over 2003 of $4.8 million for the Fish and Wildlife Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife program. " The 2004 budget provides $497,000 for Take Pride in America - to rally citizens to become engaged through volunteerism to leverage federal investments in conservation partnerships effectively and efficiently. " Congress provides $788 million for the Department's fire program, including $99 million to repay funds borrowed in 2003. Suppression activities are funded at the ten-year average, and the budget continues robust funding of $185 million for fuels treatment. For the Hazardous Fuels Reduction program, DOI will emphasize collaborative efforts to protect wildland urban interface communities. Fifty percent of on-the-ground fuels reduction monies will fund contracts to protect communities and aid local economies, and many of the fuels reduction contracts will be awarded to small, local companies. " The Congress funded the Department's request of $10 million in grants funding to help equip and train rural fire departments for wildfire preparedness and initial attack capability. " Funding for the NPS maintenance backlog is $704 million, comparable with the request. Combined with DOT funding for roads, the 2004 program will provide over $1 billion to parks maintenance. " Congress provides $297 million, slightly more than the requested level for BIA education construction. This investment supports the President's "No Child Left Behind" initiative and will allow us to replace school facilities at seven or more locations and address critical health and safety concerns at a number of other schools. " The 2004 appropriations provide $72 million for the Natural Resource Challenge - our program to improve the management of natural resources in parks. This brings cumulative increases in the program since 2001 to $100.5 million. " The Congress funds federal land acquisition at $109 million, $34 million below the request. The State grants component of LWCF is funded at $94 million, $66 million below the request. " Congress funds our unified Indian trust budget at $456 million. Congress limited funding for historical accounting to $45 million, $85 million below our request. Bill language limits the scope of accounting in 2004 pending actions by Congress to amend the 1994 Trust Management Reform Act. " The budget for the Bureau of Land Management included increases for resource protection and restoration while also facilitating access for energy development, funding to reinvigorate forest health treatments, improve recreational opportunities, and services on public lands, and funding to strengthen law enforcement capabilities. " The budget for the Fish and Wildlife Service included increases for endangered species activities, refuge operations and maintenance, migratory birds, law enforcement programs and hatchery operations and maintenance. " For the National Park Service, Congress funded the majority of the $16.4 million increase for park base operations and the $14.3 million increase requested for cyclic maintenance.


text: On Wed, 8 Dec 2004, Rajiv wrote: > Dear Sir, > I would like to get CPU benchmark results for various architectures. > Any good sites where I could find this information. I found the site > http://www.unc.edu/atn/hpc/performance/ useful. But I am unable to > access - I am asked for username and password. How can I access this > site. Here are at least some of the the primary/famous benchmarks: SPEC -- probably the "best" of the application-level benchmark suites. Fairly tight rules, but deep-pocketed vendors doubtless maintain an edge beyond just having decent hardware. lmbench -- I think without question the best of the microbenchmark suites. If you want to find out how fast the CPU does any basic operation, this is probably the first place to look. This suite is heavily used by the linux kernel developers including Linus Himself because it provides accurate and reproducible timings of things like interrupt handling rates, context switch rates, memory latency and bandwidth, and some selected CPU operational rates. stream -- If you are interested in CPU-memory combined rates in operations on streaming vectors (e.g. copy, add, multiply-add) stream is the microbenchmark of choice. Its one weakness is that it doesn't provide one (easily) with a picture of rates as a function of vector size, so that one cannot observe the variation as one increases the vector size across the various CPU cache sizes. It is therefore better suited (as a predictor of application performance) for people running large applications involving linear algebra than for people operating on small blocks of data. Oh, and another weakness is that it doesn't provide any measure that includes the division operation. This is important because some code REQUIRES division in a streaming context or otherwise, and division is often several times slower than multiplication. linpack -- Another linear algebra type benchmark. Not terribly relevant at the application level any more, and a bit too complex to be a microbenchmark -- IMHO this is a benchmark that could be retired without anyone really missing it for practical reasons. However, it is has been around a long time and there is a fair bit of data derived from it. When someone tells you how many "MFLOPS" a system has, they are probably referring to Linpack MFLOPS. Historically, this has been a highly misleading predictor of relative systems performance at the application level and has also proven relatively easy to "cheat" on a bit at the hardware and software level, but there it is. savage -- This is a nearly forgotten benchmark that measures how fast a system does transcendental function evaluations (e.g. sin, tan). These are typically library calls, but some CPUs have had them built into microcode so that they execute several times faster (typically) than library code. Libaries can also exhibit some variation depending on the algorithms used for evaluation. Some of these benchmarks are wrapped into one another. For example, the HPC Challenge suite will contain stream, and I recall that lmbench has stream available in it as well now (don't shoot me if that is wrong -- I'm just remembering and could be mistaken). My own benchmark wrapper, cpu_rate (available on my website below under either General or Beowulf, can't remember which) contains stream WITH a variable length vector size, a stream-like measure of "bogomflops" (arithmetic mean of +-*/ times/rates), savage, and a memory read/write test that permits one to shuffle the order of access to compare streaming with random access rates. It is still a bit buggy and is on my list for more work (along with about four other projects:-) over Xmas break, but what it is really designed to be is a shell for drop-in microbenchmarks of your own design (arbitrary code fragments). Benchmarking whole applications is easy -- just use wall-clock time. Benchmarking small code fragments is remarkably difficult, especially if their execution time is comparable to the time required to read the most accurate system clock avaiable (typically the onboard CPU cycle counter). Benchmarking e.g. library calls is difficult to do completely accurately, but you can get a decent idea from using the -p flag and gmon (profiler) where there is a bit of heisenberg uncertainty in all of these -- the process of measurement can change the results, hopefully not too much to be useful. I'm not providing URLs because all of the above can easily be found with google, and because I don't know the exact URLs of lists of results derived from the benchmarks anyway. SPEC is pretty good about publishing a result list per submitted architecture. stream has started to do this as well, although it is also (unfortunately) playing a variant of the "Top X" Game where vendors get to tune and are "ranked". lmbench has the strictest rules of them all -- no vendor tuning whatsoever and you have to publish a whole SUITE of results if you publish any one. The more I look at and write about this stuff, the more I appreciate what Larry (McVoy) is fighting against... rgb > Regards, > Rajiv -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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Simply perfect: These tights are impressive with their even look. The shaping panty section enhances the waist, legs and bottom, and is the perfect support for wearing under slim-fitting clothes. The comfortably soft knitted waistband ensures a perfect fit.
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When I was a kid, it was customary to have a special kind of book (called "Poesiealbum"), empty at first, that was given to parents and teachers and school friends, and everyone wrote some sort of inspiration quote, small poem, or short text into it, meant as an advice for life. Is this a phenomenon specific for Germany or do other cultures have this as well?
I recently found my own Poesiealbum – apparently I got it in 1964 when I was ten. The first four pages were autographed by my parents and my grandparents (mother's parents). Later, after some empty pages, they are followed by pages by two or three teachers and just two or three friends, but their quotes aren't really interesting. I am surprised to what degree I can agree today with what my parents wrote, even if the whole thing seems pretentious, even kitschy to me today.
"Who relies on others will live in a shaky world. Who relies on himself, stands well"
This sentence, written (as I googled) by Paul Heyse, was actually my father's own motto for life I think. He hated to be dependent on others. During most of his working life, he was the boss of a small print shop, and he managed to keep the family alive and fed.
"Don't destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present; enjoy the present"
This one, contributed by my mother, really surprised me – I googled it and it turned out to be by Henry David Thoreau. I don't believe she was actually familiar with Thoreau's work, she probably found it in some collection of dictums, but nonetheless a remarkable choice – the modern mystics such as Eckhart Tolle couldn't have put it better (although there is far more to living in the moment than most people realize).
"Let yourself be guided – but not in your feeling and your thinking"
This one, suggested by my grandma (who had a rebellious spirit and raised her five children without religion), was originally written by Friedrich von Sallet, a German writer from the early 19th century who was critical of religion and the military. Not bad, grandma!
"Making others happy makes you happy"
Don't remember much of my grandpa. And I don't know who wrote this line – but the German wording can be found back into the mid-19th century, according to Google. Not sure what to think of this but I see the source of happiness somewhere else. Too bad I can't discuss this with my grandpa! he died when I was a child.
What would I write in a boy's Poesiealbum book? something like a motto of my life? What is that motto? I can't seem to put it into words at the moment. The simple insight into reality can't be put into words.


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Identify core keywords
Identifying your core keywords is the most important step in creating and/or improving the SEO health of your website. Using tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool can help you understand what your users are searching for. Once identified, these keywords and phrases should then be used in your titles, descriptions and content.
Create high quality content
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Meta Titles
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Meta Descriptions
Creating high quality, compelling meta descriptions will help drive more users to your website from the search engine results pages. Ensure that you use your core keywords within your meta descriptions as these will be highlighted in bold text when displayed within the results pages on Google and other search engines.
URLs that are dynamic (http://www.example.com/product.php?cat=3&id=23) are difficult to read and may not be crawled by search engine bots. Having descriptive URLs (http://www.clickmaven.co.za/services/seo) will give more benefit for both humans and bots. This may also increase the relevancy of external links that just use the URL as the link text.
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Implement Rich Data
Rich data (www.schema.org) should be implemented on as many pages as possible. Making use of the available schema's on schema.org will further improve the overall SEO health of your website.


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"The American empire is going down."
So declared history professor and former president of the Middle East Studies Association, Joel Beinin, on the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center (PPJC) cable television program, "Other Voices" (watch here) last week in Palo Alto.
Following an "extended leave" from Stanford University in 2006 based on what Beinin then described as the university's "minimal institutional interest in the study and teaching of the modern Middle East," a two-year stint as director of Middle East Studies at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt, and rumors earlier this year that he was to land a position as director of the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University, Beinin is back at Stanford this Fall.
If the PPJC interview was any indication, Beinin's anti-American, anti-Israel venom remains intact. At the same time, he made a number of surprisingly candid statements not often heard from Middle East studies academics.
Beinin followed up his pronouncement about the supposed demise of the "American empire" by conceding that the superpowers most likely to take America's place, China and Russia, were hardly benign or democratic in nature, and that "people will suffer in the process." But he seemed pleased that the "U.S. will no longer dominate the next century," for it will "force Israel to make changes in the Middle East."
Accordingly, Beinin described Israel as "solely dependent on the U.S." and not, as some would have it, "the tail that wags the American dog." Beinin further skewered the Walt-Mearsheimer "Israel Lobby" hypothesis by noting that there are a number of lobbies in the U.S. and that the process is a legal and legitimate one.
Beinin was similarly forthright about the problems afflicting Egypt and the tyrannical nature of the Egyptian regime, led by Hosni Mubarak. He spoke about the struggles faced by trade unions, the "dysfunctional" educational system, the persecution of the Baha'i, and the corruption of law enforcement, which, as he described it, responds to citizen complaints of any sort with arbitrary imprisonment and torture. One might wonder how Beinin justified his prestigious stint at AUC, or as described in a 2006 interview with Egypt Today, his "comfortable life in Egypt's capital," considering the oppressive nature of his patrons.
The answer lies in Beinin's blame-America first approach. While acknowledging the existence of Islamists and the prevalence of the "imperialism/Zionism/capitalism" trope in Egypt, Beinin placed responsibility for the current state of affairs upon U.S. aid to Egypt. Egypt, as he noted, is the second largest recipient of U.S. aid next to Israel, a fact often lost upon the Israel-obsessed crowd. The U.S. "needs an unpopular government in Egypt" to maintain the "peace treaty with Israel," he concluded.
When asked by a member of the live audience who benefits from the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, Beinin pointed the finger at U.S. arms dealers and manufacturers, evangelical Christians trying to "hasten the Second Coming," and the Jewish people who, after suffering the "psychic trauma of the Holocaust," went on via the state of Israel to inflict the same abuse upon others. The identification of Nazism with aspects of Islamist ideology – despite its basis in reality – is an example of this "psychological cycle," according to Beinin.
As for the "self-destructive behavior" of the Palestinians, Beinin again blamed psychological trauma, but this time based on "dispossession." Beinin recognized and condemned the "terrorist outrages" of Hamas, while also noting that the group was democratically elected and thus enjoys popular support. He also pointed out the corruption of Fatah. Yet, he urged Israel to negotiate with a "unified Palestinian government" involving Fatah and Hamas, despite the acknowledged futility of such a course of action. As Beinin put it, "each side needs to recognize the other's pain." Israel retreating to the 1967 borders, abandoning all settlements, and "ending the occupation" wouldn't hurt either, according to Beinin.
In one of the more revealing comments of the evening, Beinin noted that "Egyptian intellectuals" were by far the most rigid and ideologically slanted in their political views. It was the intellectuals, he pointed out, who failed to make a distinction either between the U.S. government and the American people or Jews and Zionists, while the "common people" seemed to "get it."
Ironically, the same could be said for any number of intellectuals inhabiting the ivory towers of Middle East studies academia in the U.S., including Beinin himself. While Beinin's forthrightness on certain issues is laudable, his conclusions remain highly politicized. And questions surrounding Beinin's scholarship and occasionally unsavory tactics persist.
The fact that an audience member, during the question and answer period, described Beinin admiringly as the "counterpart" of the conspiratorial and tendentious University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole speaks volumes. So too does Beinin's status as a guest contributor to Cole's Informed Comment blog.
As Alyssa Lappen, writing about Beinin for Campus Watch in 2004, put it, "if one individual can showcase all the flaws of Middle East Studies in academia, Joel Beinin is that man."
Stanford students beware.
Cinnamon Stillwell is the Northern California Representative for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Home Occupation Standards
Relationship to Primary Use
Each home occupation shall be clearly incidental and subordinate to the use of the dwelling and site for residential purposes. The home occupation may be conducted in the primary dwelling or an accessory structure on the subject property provided that the area does not exceed 20% or 400 square feet of the habitable floor area of the primary dwelling, whichever is greater. No parking space required for the dwelling shall be used for any home occupation activity.
A home occupation shall have no on-site employees other than full-time residents of the dwelling.
The use shall not require any exterior modification to the structure not customarily found in a dwelling, nor shall the home occupation activity be visible from a public right-of-way, or from neighboring residential properties.
Off-Site Effects
There shall be no mechanical equipment or operation used which creates or makes dust, odor, vibration or other effects detectable at the property line. Each home occupation shall comply with the city's Noise Ordinance.
On-Site Sales
There shall be no products sold on the premises except artist originals or products individually made to order on the premises. Articles that are not artist originals or individually made-to-order may be produced on-site, using equipment normally found in a residence, provided that these products shall only be sold off-site.
Traffic & Vehicles
The use shall not generate pedestrian or vehicular traffic beyond that which is normal in a residential district nor in any case require the parking of more than 2 additional vehicles at any one time. No motor vehicle that is used or kept on the premises in conjunction with the home occupation shall exceed 2 axles or a length of 20 feet.
Client & Customer Visits
The home occupation shall be operated so as to not require more than 2 business visitors per hour, not to exceed a total of 8 business visitors per day, only between the hours of 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.; except that in the case of tutoring or instruction (e.g., academic subjects, arts
The home occupation shall not involve the use of commercial vehicles for delivery of materials to or from the premises in a manner different from normal residential usage, except for FedEx, UPS, or USPS-type home pick-ups and deliveries.
Hazardous Materials
The storage of hazardous materials shall be limited to below the threshold established by the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District which
A home occupation shall be limited to a single wall-mounted, non-illuminated sign, not to exceed a maximum of 1 square foot.
The director may establish reasonable conditions on the operation any home occupation if necessary to meet the intent of this section. Conditions shall be attached to the business license for the home occupation as provided in Municipal Code Section 22-77.
Planning Division
Physical Address
6360 Fountain Square Drive
Citrus Heights, CA 95621
Phone: 916-727-4740Fax: 916-725-5799
Lobby Hours
8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday


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WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal regulator is standing by its decision to bar Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from reducing principal for borrowers at risk of foreclosure, resisting pressure from the Obama administration.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the decision Tuesday after months of considering the option.
The agency's acting director, Edward DeMarco, has long opposed allowing Fannie and Freddie to offer principal reduction.
DeMarco said an extensive analysis by the FHFA found the potential benefit was too small compared with the costs and risks. The risks include as many as 19,000 borrowers strategically defaulting on their loans, according to the analysis.
About 74,000 to 248,000 homeowners would be eligible for principal reductions from Fannie and Freddie, the analysis showed. An estimated 11 million Americans owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
The Obama administration immediately voiced its disappointment with the decision.
"I do not believe it is the best decision for the country," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter to DeMarco.
Geithner said allowing Fannie and Freddie to do "targeted" reductions of principal for troubled borrowers would provide much-needed help to a significant number of troubled homeowners. He said that would help repair the nation's housing market and result in a net benefit to taxpayers.
The government rescued Fannie and Freddie in September 2008 to cover losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then the FHFA, which is independent of the administration, has controlled their financial decisions.
U.S. taxpayers have spent roughly $170 billion to rescue the companies. It could cost roughly $260 billion more to support them through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments, according to the government.
The Treasury Department said in January that it would cover part of the cost if Fannie and Freddie could reduce principal when they modify mortgages for troubled borrowers. The department said it would use unspent housing rescue money from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
DeMarco acknowledged in a meeting with reporters that administration officials and others could disagree with the agency's decision and interpret its analysis differently.
"Others could look at this and weigh these things differently," he said.


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It's extremely rare for someone to get to say that something is a once in a lifetime event but this year thanks to the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars aligning that event is happening and it has been dubbed.
Yes it is true, the first night of Chanukah and Thanksgiving are falling on the same day this year. This event won't take place again for another 70,000 years. You might have some serious great ancestor around to celebrate then but for now, let's eat.
Stefani from Cupcake Project realized the awesomeness of these two great food-centric holidays and rounded up a fantastic list of bloggers to create the perfect menu for your Thanksgivukkah feast. The amount of creativity that went into all the dishes is outstanding and in my opinion it shows that Thanksgiving and Chanukah foods were meant to be eaten together.
I pretty much had it planned out in my mind from the beginning to do a latke topped with turkey and cranberry chutney. As I was putting these together, I realized hey I'm building Jewish tostadas here! This dish is extremely deceiving, the latkes alone will fill you up and then to add some extra goodies – well you'll want to put on those stretchy pants :-).
In my opinion this is better suited for the day after of Thanksgiving, it's the perfect use for leftover Turkey but if you are hosting only a small group for Thanksgiving these sure beat roasting a big 'ol turkey!
My cranberry chutney is quite tart, if you prefer one that's on the sweeter side I suggest doubling the amount of sugar added.
- 3 large russet potatoes, peeled and shredded
- 1 medium onion, shredded
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus additional salt to season
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- vegetable oil
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- zest from 1 large orange
- juice from 1 large orange
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Leftover turkey from Thanksgiving or 1lb turkey cooked cutlets, cooked to your preference.
- In a large mixing bowl, combined the shredded potatoes, onions, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Squeeze tightly to remove excess liquid and drain.
- In a large frying pan over medium heat, pour in enough vegetable oil to reach 1/4 inch high.
- To test that the oil is hot enough, place a small amount of latke mixture in the oil if it bubbles right away you are good to go.
- Gather together about 3/4 of a cup of latke mixture in your hand and flatten into a round patty. Squeeze out any additional liquid and fry until golden brown about 3-4 minutes on each side.
- Transfer to a paper towel lined plate and season with additional kosher salt. Continue to fry latkes, adding more oil to the pan if necessary.
- While the latkes are frying, in a small saucepan over medium heat mix the cranberries, orange juice and zest and sugar. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring frequently until the cranberries having broken down and thickened - about 10 minutes.
- To plate: Place a latke on a place with a small amount of turkey and top with cranberry chutney, serve immediately.
For more menu ideas, check out the rest of the Thanksgivukkah Potluck!
- Thanksgivukkah Tzimmes (Tsimis) Pie from Parade Magazine
- Potato Latkes Topped with Turkey and Cranberry Chutney from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
- Chocolate Cranberry Cake with Gelt Glaze from What Jew Wanna Eat
- Candied Sweet Potato Latkes from Everyday Maven
- Butternut Squash Puree with Honey and Smoked Paprika from The Lemon Bowl
- Sweet Potato Noodle Kugel from Rhubarb and Honey
- Pumpkin-glazed Cronuts from MotherWouldKnow
- Flamingo's Mulled Wine Cocktail – Hot & Cold from Flamingo Musings
- Thanksgivukkah Decorating from Sucre Shop
- Onion Bagel and Bacon Stuffing from Very Culinary
- Sweet Potato Pie Doughnut Holes from Cooking for Luv
- Challah Cranberry Doughnuts from Food is my Love Language
- Challah Stuffing with Turkey Sausage, Leeks and Cherries from The Little Ferraro Kitchen
- Pumpkin Cranberry Maple Kugel from Farm Fresh Feasts
- Pumpkin Challah from Labna.it
- Thanksgivukah Pumpkin Tsimmes from {fork & swoon}
- Turkey and Sweet Potato Latkes from FoodieTots
- Homemade Manischewitz-flavored Marshmallows from Cupcake Project